Traffic Stop Yields Drugs

January 22, 2013

The Mountaineer Highway Interdiction Team recovered a quantity of heroin from an Ohio man following a traffic stop on Wheeling Island on Sunday night.

Ohio County Magistrate Joe Roxby arraigned Shawn Lemont McClain on Monday on the felony charge of possession with intent to deliver a schedule II controlled substance. The 33-year-old Cleveland resident was arrested after West Virginia State Police stopped the rental car he was traveling in on South Front Street for a traffic violation. McClain was found to have two cellophane bags of heroin with a total weight of about 15 grams.

Police said McClain and the other occupants of the vehicle, including the driver, Chaunita R. Williams, had traveled to Cleveland Friday and purchased the heroin. The drugs were transported back to Wheeling, where there allegedly were plans for the heroin to be distributed.

Williams, 32, was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana after officers found a small amount of the substance in her purse.

"By participating in MHIT we are able to work closely with other agencies and to perform special patrols in areas that need extra attention from time to time," said Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger, whose K-9 officer assisted with the arrests. "We are also able to respond quickly and effectively to citizen complaints."

"MHIT continues to change the way that we fight crime in the Northern District of West Virginia," said U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld II. "It puts us in a position to seize dangerous drugs like heroin that come to the Ohio Valley from large cities like Cleveland before they make it to the street for distribution."

MHIT also includes the Ohio County Sheriff's Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.